Baton Rouge --- LSU will preview one of its new classes on Monday, Dec. 18 for a distinguished “student” --- Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.

LSU Center for Computation and Technology (CCT) Professor Thomas Sterling will travel to University of Arkansas to demonstrate his “Introduction to High-Performance Computing” course, which will be offered at LSU for the first time during the Spring 2007 semester.

This course, which offers an interdisciplinary look at using high-performance computing, will also be the first use of high-definition video over the Internet for distributed classroom instruction in the United States. The course will be offered for credit through LSU to students at Louisiana Tech University, the University of Arkansas and students in the Czech Republic. Sterling’s lessons will be broadcast via HDTV to students at these sites.

For the demonstration, Professor Sterling will be at University of Arkansas on Monday, Dec. 18 for a news conference at 9:30 a.m. Staff at LSU will watch the conference in real time, and CCT Director Dr. Ed Seidel will converse with Professor Sterling and Gov. Huckabee from LSU to demonstrate how the technology for the course will work.

Media who wish to watch the class demonstration with Dr. Seidel, Dr. Sterling and Gov. Huckabee can come to the CCT Imaginarium in Room 320 of the Fred Frey Computing Services Center on the LSU campus at 9:15 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 18.

The demonstration of the class coincides with the University of Arkansas’ launch of its fiber optic network and shows how high-speed networks of this kind can transmit video and audio across the country and world to connect universities and high-performance computing resources together.

http://cct.lsu.edu